Exploring a city’s libraries is one of the most fascinating ways to immerse yourself in the region’s cultural heritage. Munich’s libraries are more than just research centers – they are treasure troves of books, journals, manuscripts, photographs and digital archives. Many not only offer reading material, but are also museums in their own right, with exhibitions of rare prints, historical photographs and art. Find out which libraries in Munich are worth a visit in our list.
1st City Library Am Gasteig
The Stadtbibliothek am Gasteig has a collection of over 2 million books and various media. The library dates back to 1985 and is currently being renovated. For this reason, the collection has been temporarily divided between the city library in HP8 in Sendling and the city library in Motorama. The part of the collection of the Stadtbibliothek Am Gasteig in the Stadtbibliothek im HP8 focuses on the areas of music, languages and learning. The city library in Motorama, on the other hand, is more of a family library, which also includes a games area. Both have an extensive collection of fiction and non-fiction books.
City library in HP8
📍Location: Hall E at Hans-Preißinger-Straße 8
⌚Opening hours: 7 am to 11 pm
City library in Motorama
📍Location: Opposite the Gasteig City Library and Rosenheimer Straße
⌚Opening hours: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
2nd Lyrik Kabinett
Founded in 1989, the Lyrik Kabinett is the first library for poetry in the whole of Germany. The Lyrik Kabinett has a collection of over 65,000 titles and is a reference library. This means that you can’t take a book home with you. But you can visit the library, browse and read whenever you want. The library also offers guided tours that focus on its collection of artists’ books.
📍Location: Institute for Comparative Literature, University of Munich
⌚Opening hours: 10 am to 12 noon and 1 pm to 5 pm
3rd Law Library
The Law Library is one of the libraries in Munich that is a magnet for visitors due to its extensive collection of law books and its Art Nouveau architecture. It was founded in 1843 and moved to its current location in 1906. The 10-meter-high gilded, wrought-iron spiral staircase and the library’s balustrades are hard to miss. If you’re visitingthe library more for the aesthetics than the books, you should take a guided tour of Munich City Hall. Or visit one of the many cultural events that take place in the library.
📍Location: Rudolf-Vogel-Bogen 5, 81739 Munich
⌚Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
4. library of the HFF Munich (HFF)
The HFF Munich library is one of the leading sources for books on film and television in Germany and Europe. It has around 80,000 books, 30,000 DVDs and over 700 Blu-Ray CDs. You will also find archive and new editions of over 100 subscription magazines. Many titles in the library’s collection are rare and difficult to find. You cannot borrow books from this library, but you can read or photocopy relevant sections.
📍Location: Bernd-Eichinger-Platz 1 80333 Munich
⌚Opening hours: Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
5th Historicum
The Historicum library is a popular place for students at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. Located in the heart of the campus, this library in Munich has a large collection of academic books and historical sources. It is particularly well known for its holdings on archaeology and Byzantine studies. Although it is primarily a student library, it can be visited by anyone, unless the library has been reserved by the teaching staff.
📍Location: Schellingstraße 12, 80799 Munich
⌚Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and at weekends, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
6. specialized library Philologicum
The Philologicum is a library for linguistics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. It was only opened in 2019 and houses over 400,000 volumes. The collection is spread over four levels and three different areas. One zone is a classic reading room, another is designed for group study and the third zone is designed for absolute silence. These zones have more than 700 different types of work areas to meet different needs.
📍Location: Ludwigstraße 25,80539 Munich
⌚Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and at weekends, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.